Posts Tagged ‘hospital’

A former employee at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York state was arrested earlier this month and accused of knowingly exposing numerous surgical patients to hepatitis C.  Kristen Diane Parker was apparently injecting herself with painkillers meant for patients, then refilling the syringes with saline solution for subsequent use, even though she knew she was infected with hepatitis C. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne disease that can cause serious liver problems, including cirrhosis and liver cancer. Northern Westchester Hospital is notifying approximately 2,800 patients who had surgery there to come in for testing. The hospital has set up a patient help line at 914-666-1902 for more information. [via CBS news]

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The US Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) is now making death rates for pneumonia, heart attack, and heart failure at US hospitals available online at their Hospital Compare website. The website was launched in 2005 in hopes that hospitals will improve quality of care if they are able to compare themselves with other hospitals. According to HHS, the mortality rates have been adjusted to take into account how sick each patient is. Is this information helpful to patients? Some believe that death rates don’t necessarily measure the quality of care hospitals provide. However, most agree that giving the public more information on hospital performance is, in general, a good thing. Full story.

According to new CDC data the average wait time at US hospital emergency rooms have increased from 38 minutes to nearly one hour over the past decade. At the same time the number of emergency departments have dropped, which further exacerbates the problem. Emergency departments are often forced to shut down due to poor reimbursement for the services they provide. At the same time more and more patients are using the ER as their primary care facility for a variety of reasons – delaying care due to increased health care costs, difficulty in getting appointments to see their physicians in a timely manner, and lack of health insurance. The results are troubling, but not surprising. Full story.